Figures, Characters, and Avatars by Les Pardew

reviewed September 27, 2009

This book does accomplish what the stated goal is: “to unlock the 3D artist in you using the incredible power of DAZ Studio….You will learn how to build sets, and populate them with amazing characters…create movies…improve drawing skills, make you a better artist..” But probably most of the purchasers of this book are hoping to learn specifically how to use the Daz Studio software, and seeing that there is much more theory than actual software practice, they (and a little bit myself too) are a bit disappointed. Having said that tho, the book, as a whole, fulfills what i wanted it to do. The main reason i bot it anyway, was for the super software bundled with the book – Carrara Pro 6, Hexagon 2.5, and Daz Studio 2.3, plus a lot of content.

The book helps explain artistic theory for total graphic idiots like myself. So explaining the “whys” of posing a figure, instead of the “hows” is very useful, and will hopefully help to keep down amateurish mistakes, which can be seen all over the internet. Theory about composition, posing, lighting, animating reactions is given in a very simple manner, which is what i need. There are also examples of actually using the software to do certain tasks like using Puppeteer to do animations, or how to use the various tools to do the poses, Mimic Pro to lip sync etc.

One somewhat odd thing, is that some parts of the book seem to be advertisements for various software programs. The oddest example, is a large section of one chapter is given to what Bryce is all about with even an actual example, but then Bryce is not included on the DVD that comes with the book. On the opposite side of the coin, Hexagon is not mentioned in the book at all, but IS on the DVD. Keeping with what i’ve noticed of the Daz company in the few months i’ve been following them – they are just not coordinated well.

For minor gripes, mostly of a grammatical nature:
p.59 shows how to put clothes on a figure and fit it, but no clothing comes with the base program. p.64 explains what to do with a opacity map, but there is no example of how to make the map. p.82 says “next chapter”, but the chapter referred to is the “next next chapter”. p.157 called “drop shadow” on the pic, but “cast shadow” in the explanation. p.170 and 191 right and left are mixed up. Again, Bryce is highlighted in the book, but not included on the DVD. However, you can download version 5.5 for free on cnet.

Carrara Pro 6 alone is worth far more than the cost of this book. So while the coordination between Daz and the author seems to have been shaky at best, the DVD itself contains programs and 3d figures and characters worth many hundreds of dollars, so i’m very happy with my purchase 🙂